OK. I am writing this post at half past midnight because I just finished EARTHBORN and, to be frank, I am very frustrated with how Card chose to end this series. I invested 10 weeks reading these 5 books straight through, only to realize in the end that (to my mind, at least) Card didn't "play fair". He failed to resolve important plot points, and many of the emotional situations he set up did not have true payoffs.
Although SHIPS OF EARTH contains some of OSC'S best writing ever (note his ability to juggle nearly 30 characters and keep us interested in all of them at the same time), there were a number of MAJOR plot inconsistencies and continuity errors in the series that a half-way decent editor should have picked up on.
And because I am anal about these sorts of things, I have compiled the following very lengthy list of them. Maybe no one cares but me, but I thought they should be documented.
MoE = MEMORY OF EARTH (BOOK 1) CoE = CALL OF EARTH (BOOK 2) SoE = SHIPS OF EARTH (BOOK 3) EF = EARTHFALL (BOOK 4) EB = EARTHBORN (BOOK 5)
MAJOR PLOT INCONSISTENCIES
1. It is established from the opening chapters in MoE that the Oversoul needs humans to help it return to Earth to be repaired by the Keeper of Earth. As the plot unfolds in MoE and CoE, it is clear that the Oversoul's plans include 16 people from Basilica who have been genetically bred over many generations specifically for this journey. But, near the end of SoE, we discover that the only help the Oversoul needs is a little assistance to rebuild one of the ships (most of the work is done by the robots), and then one person to wear the Cloak of the Starmaster and pilot the ship through space.
Why did the Oversoul need 16 people to do this? A lot of trouble could have been saved if the Oversoul had only chosen 1 or 2. [Now, of course, we also learn the Keeper needed enough people to start a colony and repopulate Earth, but this could not have been behind the Oversoul's original purpose.]
Card himself must have been aware of this problem. In EB (ch-2, p-45) the Oversoul tells Shedemei "Don't you see? Your being here wasn't my plan. I needed human help to assemble one workable starship, but I didn't need to take any humans with me. I brought you because the Keeper of the Earth was somehow sending you dreams. The Keeper seemed to want you humans here. So I brought you."
The problem with this explanation is that it contradicts MoE (ch-16, p-290), where the Oversoul tells Nafai that his family will go on a long voyage back to planet Earth, and this occurs before anyone receives dreams from the Keeper!
2. In EF, the Oversoul encourages Nafai to keep many of the children awake during the starship voyage, to let them grown into adulthood while Elemak sleeps, to prevent Elemak from killing them after they land on Earth. The Oversoul tells Nafai that once they reach Earth, it (Oversoul) will not have power to protect the Nafari. But after they land, the Oversoul never leaves, and Nafai retains his powers from the Cloak of the Starmaster. So, where was the danger? Why did the children need to stay awake?
3. In EF, once the ship reaches Earth, the Oversoul never gets repaired and returns to Harmony. This is eventually resolved in EB, after many centuries have passed, but it is very odd that none of the original characters ever mention the reason for the journey after they land.
4. Card never answers one of the fundamental questions that is posed about the Keeper in the CoE, SoE, and EF. How did the Keeper (which turns out to be an omnipresent god-like force in the magnetic fields of the earth) communicate across thousands of light years to the inhabitants of Basilica?
ANNOYING EDITORIAL ERRORS:
1. Luet prophecies in MoE that Eiadh will offer to mate with Nafai, but that he will refuse her (ch-2, p-26). While the books make clear that Eiadh does later fall in love with Nafai, and she loves him in fact for many years, this prophesied proposal never takes place. In fact, it is mentioned at least twice in EF that Eiadh purposefully never pursued other men besides her husband Elemak, despite his repeated infidelities.
2. In MoE (ch-2, p-18) Issib tells Nafai that he has had sex with an "auntie" - an older woman who tutors young men in sexual matters. But in of SoE (ch-4, p 135-40), Issib couples with his wife Hushidh. When Hushidh undresses, the text says "no woman had ever done such a thing in front of him". Later the same night, Issib says "This is the most wonderful night of my life, most because...because I thought it would never happen". The implication is clearly that Issib was a virgin before that night.
3. In EF (ch-9, p-167), the text says pTo and Poto were saved from the diggers as infants because an older brother helped carry them to safety. But when that same incident is recounted later (ch-12, p-235), Poto saved himself after this parents rescued pTo; there was no older brother involved.
4. In EB (ch-1, p-26) the story is established of a soldier named Teonig who tried to assassinate his king Nuak, only to spare the king's life at the last minute when he sees an approaching enemy army. But when the story is recounted later (ch-7, p-198), the soldier's name is changed to Khideo, a prominent character in rest of the book.
[ September 11, 2007, 04:58 PM: Message edited by: Craig Childs ]
Posted by MidnightBlue (Member # 6146) on :
Number 2 in the Editorial Errors bothered me for a while, but I enjoyed the books so much that I'm willing to let all of those little things go.
Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
I think that one was sufficiently answered in another thread on this page.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
I found the Homecoming series to be my least favorite of Card's books. I made it through Books 1-3, however vapidly. I didn't make it through all of books 5 & 6.
I'm not sure why I couldn't get into these characters as much as in Card's other works. I enjoyed book 1 most of any.
Farmgirl
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Me too Farmgirl! I actually thought that OSC was writing them out of some sort of contractual obligation, rather than a desire to tell the story, and I ended up abandoning the series after the third book.
Posted by MagusFire (Member # 6780) on :
I just finished 'Earthfall' and I signed up on these forums soley to discuss the Homecoming series.
After reading Earthfall, I was extremely frustrated with the ending. The first three books were amazing- probably the best I've ever read.
Then Earthfall takes things in a completely different direction. No mention of Harmony, no mention of the Oversoul's original plan (which seemed to be the driving force behind the entire storyline, now forgotten). It's as if Card goes with a good idea for awhile; then finds something he likes better, and puts the old one down.
The characters established in Homecoming are amazing... Each of them unique and very 'human', not just flat characters who soley exist to advance the plot, like in most stories. So at the end of Earthfall, when it basically says 'All the main characters die, centuries pass', it's like a physical blow. After reading about these characters throughout four books, and then realizing that they're all dead, with no sense of closure, it's very very frustrating. I'm not very interested in Earthborn now, although I'll probably still read it.
It's especially frustrating knowing how epic the last two books of the series really could have been; there were so many complexities and conflicts between characters.
Still, Card is one of the best authors out there. Maybe I'll start the Alvin Maker series or whatever it is.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I think my reply got eaten. I stopped reading Earthborn the first time through the series, but now I really like it.
I'm really turning into one of those people whose favorite OSC book is whatever they just finished reading. Posted by A Rat Named Dog (Member # 699) on :
I think this mostly just highlights the biggest problem with Card's goal of retelling the story of the Book of Mormon in a science fiction setting. The Book of Mormon doesn't have a satisfying ending, of the sort you'd expect from fiction. Instead, the descendants of the colonizers simply repeat the mistakes of their forebears and die out en masse, leaving only one survivor to preserve their history.
Of course, pessimist that I am, I probably wouldn't have minded that ending at all ... Posted by Cashew (Member # 6023) on :
The first time I read the Homecoming series I felt frustrated with the last one, as well as some other parts. But the second time I got much more out of it, and really enjoyed it.
Posted by MagusFire (Member # 6780) on :
Wow, I definitely should have read Earthborn before I got miffed about the 'ending' of Earthfall. What a great book Earthborn was. A perfect closing to the series (although OSC could easily write another one) and I'm going to re-read the series again very soon. Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
I agree with you about Earthborn. I truly loved that book and kind of felt like it stood apart from the rest of the series, both for literary reasons (different set of characters, further into the future) and simply the passion with which he told the story. I loved that book.
Posted by MagusFire (Member # 6780) on :
I really would like another book though. continuing with Shedemei, and maybe advancing far enough into the future to show what happens to the other planets. It'd be great to see some flashbacks to things that happened between Nafai and Elemak when they were still alive. Am I the only one who kept waiting for Meb to 'wake up' and turn to Nafai's side? That still 'could have' happened later on in their lives... Just wishful thinking I guess.
Posted by Brian J. Hill (Member # 5346) on :
I agree with Dog. Most of these inconsistencies can be explained by the need OSC felt to stay close to the source material--in this case, the Book of Mormon. Not that the Homecoming Series follows the BOM exactly, but the major plot points are consistent with the scripture. It is sort of ironic that the one thing that attracts me so much to the Homecoming Series is also its biggest downfall.
Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :
Ok, I feel like being just as anal, and I'm bored, so I'm going to list MY self justifications for these things.
Resoponse to problem 1: The oversole couldn't have done the work with just 1 or 2 people. For one thing, she couldn't have been sure who would be able to break through the barrier protections. There is safety in numbers. On top of that, it took them quite a while to fix up the starship even with everyone working on it, and most of the robots were broken. One or two people couldn't have done things so easily.
As far as giving Nafai the response before any of the keepers "dreams" were talked about, that's not necessarily true. We only know about dreams accounted in the second book, but that doesn't mean no dreams happened before that, only that we weren't told of them. It's possible the oversole could have been repeating something to Nafai that she picked up from someone else's head that even she didn't know she was repeating. After all, all three of them (Issib, Volemak, and Nafai) got different visions. If nothing else, the Oversoul may have been lying to Nafai to encourage him, or she may have intended to take at least him all along. While she my not have NEEDED any humans to fix the ship, and certainly didn't need a whole colony, a single human was needed to wear the cloak of the starmaster. Even if she could have gotten away without a starmaster, having at least one human in case some part of the ship broke down would have made cautious sense.
However, I really think she mostly showed that to Nafai because he was an ambitious little fool at that point in time, and would be far more committed to returning to Earth than to exiling himself and his family to some remote farming life. :-)
Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :
2. I don't think the Oversoul was intending to stay for as long as she did. She thought she'd be heading back to Harmony right away. She was wrong, but who could have known?
Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :
3. Just because it's not mentioned doesn't mean they don't talk about it. It's just not important to the story, so why include it? I think with this one you're just looking for problems.
4. Um, I think the issue with distance communication was solved rather well. Since the keeper is not bound by "science", the distance did not matter. The keeper's a God, what else is there to it?
Posted by umber (Member # 9725) on :
^ I agree on 4. Any other reason doesn't have a place here.
Editorial Error #1. It did come to pass, figuratively. When someone falls in love with someone they are "offering themselves", and besides, that would be a real possibility once the "Nafari" group escaped. Also, consider the oversoul's intellectual limitations concerning human emotion. It/she/he can't see the future, either.
OR who knows, it could have been part of the oversoul's plan BEFORE Nafai and Issib started meddling. That might be a stretch but that's possible.
Posted by Craig Childs (Member # 5382) on :
quote:Originally posted by DDDaysh: 3. Just because it's not mentioned doesn't mean they don't talk about it. It's just not important to the story, so why include it? I think with this one you're just looking for problems.
I disagree. This was the whole reason for the journey, the driving impetus that set all the events of the series in motion. For the characters to just let the matter drop -- at least as far as was recorded in the novel - just did not feel natural.
Posted by Craig Childs (Member # 5382) on :
quote:Originally posted by DDDaysh: 4. Um, I think the issue with distance communication was solved rather well. Since the keeper is not bound by "science", the distance did not matter. The keeper's a God, what else is there to it?
OK, I can buy this. But maybe that's the part I didn't like about how the Keeeper was handled. By making him a God, then the question about 'how' he did things don't have to be answered. It feels like a cheat to me.
Kind of like a movie I saw recently -- where you spend the whole movie trying to solve the mystery of how the characters are related and who wants them dead, only to discover in the end that the characters are figments of someone's imagination and so there's no logical answer to the mystery at all.
Posted by aberforth (Member # 11110) on :
Just thought I would mention that I felt the the first four books should have been their own series with the the fifth being a sequel (I know it would have screwed up the whole allegory angle but still) I enjoyed the journey with Nafai and company. I felt that the whole Nafai/Elemak Struggle was driving the emotional connectiveness of the reader to the story, and to toss the characters away and start from scratch on the conclusion, made it tough for me to finish the last book with a smile. I give OSC props for a good series but I think if there was some closure on the original Nafari, it would be a great one.
Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :
To Craig on #3...
You have to remember that 10 years have passed for the main "good" characters in the book. They have children and are fighting for survival. Also, they can't do anything about the Keeper, and if they ever went back to Harmony (which none of them intended to do) everyone would be dead. They may have talked about it, but it no longer WAS important to them, because other things were more real. This is very realistic and fits with the "family is most important" philosophy.
On #4 - I think you missed the point of the book entirely. It wasn't a science fiction book, or at least not a "hard sci-fi" book. The series was much more about philosophy. We didn't just "magic" up a God to solve all the issues. The point of the series was how people search for God and how God interacts with humans. The ending was, I'm sure, very difficult to accomplish. Shedya's little dream seems like it must have taken weeks to write (unless he's just that good), because of the depth of the images. Even so, it still leaves the reader feeling like there is a large bit of the experience they'll never understand just by reading about it. I think that was on purpose, but maybe not. Either way it works!
Posted by Nikisknight (Member # 8918) on :
quote:To Craig on #3...
You have to remember that 10 years have passed for the main "good" characters in the book. They have children and are fighting for survival. Also, they can't do anything about the Keeper, and if they ever went back to Harmony (which none of them intended to do) everyone would be dead. They may have talked about it, but it no longer WAS important to them, because other things were more real. This is very realistic and fits with the "family is most important" philosophy.
Yeah, and most of the characters, of course, didn't care a whit about the mission beyond what it meant to their families survival, or even just their own comfort. Nafai and Luet should probably have had a conversation about it though. Even though they were much older, for Luet it was kinda like, remember how my mother is slowly dying back home and we came to save her? No? Me neither!
Well, I can forgive that for one of my favorite series ever, though. Can't quite say why, but I really connected with the characters when I read this, maybe because of the scope, and the ability to watch the characters grow so much.
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